Generally, gas cooktop appliances include a plurality of gas burners mounted to a top surface of the appliance. Conventionally, these burners have had flames that travel radially outward from the gas burner. While this approach works well to heat a majority of the cooking utensil surface, the center most portion of the cooking utensil does not get the same heat transfer rates as the perimeter and uneven heating results.
To overcome this inherent uneven heating, inwardly directed burners are available which direct the flames radially inward from a burner having an open center. In this manner, inwardly directed burners heat a cooking utensil more uniformly by directing flames such that they converge at the center of the cooking utensil before traveling back out the sides of the cooking utensil in a radial fashion. In order to provide sufficient secondary air to ensure the fuel burns cleanly, current designs require that these inwardly directed burners have large, open centers.
Some conventional cooktop appliances also have spring-loaded temperature sensors for measuring the temperature of the cooking utensil while heating. To ensure proper contact of the temperature sensor with the cooking utensil, these sensors typically pass vertically through the center of the burner and extend slightly above the top surface of the grate. However, the use of a temperature sensor within the flame paths of inwardly directed burners can cause errors in the temperature measurements due to the direct exposure of the temperature sensor to the inwardly directed flame.
In addition, during use of the cooktop, openings in the burners to accommodate temperature sensors may allow spills and overflows to easily pass down into the interior of the cooktop and onto the temperature sensor. This can lead to food particles accumulating on the cooktop and on the temperature sensor. Due to the proximity of the burner, the accumulated food particles have a tendency to burn onto these parts and can be difficult to clean. In addition, gas burners that are fastened to the cooktops generally include cracks at assembly interfaces and include holes, supporting geometry, and fasteners that tend to accumulate food particles and are difficult to clean around. Significant disassembly is often needed to clean the spills. Thus, a serious drawback to this design is the ability to clean spills and users frequently cite difficulty cleaning beneath the gas burners as a complaint about modern cooktops.
Accordingly, a cooktop appliance with features for accurately measuring the temperature of a cooking utensil on a gas burner assembly is desirable. More particularly, a cooktop appliance having an inwardly directed burner and a spring-loaded temperature sensor for accurately measuring the temperature of a cooking utensil would be particularly beneficial.